Biggest Game Coaching mistake Calhoun ever made

[johnhuskies95]

I didn't like the defensive game plan against Michigan State in the final four. MSU took 72 shots.

 

[Tenspro2002]

It's not luck when a guy who makes big shots makes a big shot. If Thabeet (or, say, Roy Hibbert) had hit a wing three down the stretch of a final four game, fine, you can call it luck, but not a guy who made his name making shots.

Taliek pushing the ball off a rebound and finding Rashad wide open in the corner off of transition isn't luck, its called good basketball

It was a tremendous play, and the shot itself certainly wasn't "luck".

I'm simply illustrating how little had to go differently for the story to go from "JC was a genius" to "JC was an idiot".

 

[intlzncster]

It was a tremendous play, and the shot itself certainly wasn't "luck".

I'm simply illustrating how little had to go differently for the story to go from "JC was a genius" to "JC was an idiot".

If Langdon doesn't travel, maybe JC ends his career with no Championships. Or leaves for SC.

 

[David 76]

I think the Duke game was great. One slippery possession from winning. We were not going to beat UNLV anyway. I don't think there is a real coaching mistake here.
FL was an ugly game and we were the far superior team. Maybe JC's doghouse was too rigid. Maybe this one wins. And still, though it should not have come down to the last possession in regulation, it did. Just hit one of two and we all don't remember this so painfully.
The GM game was painful too. Not sure if I put it quite as much on JC.

I think regular season. if the team is playing like they did with FL and GM, JC sits all the starters and plays the bench. Because it was the tournament and we could not get over the FF hump he backed off his regular tendency.

 

[SixRings]

Great question Nelson. Hard to complain about JC but he did lose some so I guess you can say there were mistakes made.

1) We were outplayed by an inferior George Mason team. Yeah Boone and Armstrong were sleepy but our defense overall just sucked. It was like we knew we were going to lose and had to. JC should have mixed it up and found answers.
2) JC admits this himself: should have recruited Gomes. Would have been incredible.
3) Thought we could have beaten MSU in 09. Again defense was scattered, nobody amped up - other than Izzo, and lots of missed free throws which is always the coaches fault.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

The hardest losses for mere were...

Number 3 for me was the 2006 George Mason game. Yeah, Mason played with heart and had the crowd as the underdog and was playing 20 miles away from their campus; but, it felt like UConn came to the game expecting to win and mailed it. Other teams have done that before in all sports. Not sure what JC could have done. By the end of the game I was not surprised nor upset, just sad. UConn's 2011 and 2014 team would have ripped that UConn team apart.

Number 2 was the 1995 West Final against UCLA in Oakland, which gave the Bruins a slight home court edge. Nevertheless, that UConn team was good, maybe second best that year; but, they tried running with the one team that could outscore them and that's exactly what happened (102-96). I watched the game on TV Geneva (studying in France) and was cursing up a storm in French and English begging Calhoun to go defensive because offensive was not going to win it. Only good thing, is a UCLA co-ed I met on the train to Munich the next day took pity on my and I greatly enjoyed her company as we shared a hostel room to save some money.

Number 1 was the damn 1994 East Regional in Miami against Florida. UConn had that game. I could taste celebrating a Final 4 birth on campus and they let it through their fingers. They played sloppy after knocking Florida down, made some mistakes, like those damn free throws, and let Florida back up. The exact opposite of what the 2014 team did. I remember seeing Donyell in the cafeteria a few days later with that goofy grin on his face. I literally wanted to go over an smack him like Jethro Gibbs does on NCIS. Of course, I didn't and couldn't as I punched the damn cinder block wall in Alumni so hard after the game ended that my right hand was wrapped-up for days.

 

[Horatio]

The 2006 and 2009 teams were recruited and built to win it all. Their demise was not Calhoun's coaching. Those teams lost based on their rosters.

In the 2006 the team was 30-4 but only had two ball handlers- Marcus Williams and a freshman Craig Austrie. Rob Garrison was also there as a freshman but I'm not sure he played. As good as Rashad, Rudy and Denham were they were not ball handlers. "Circuit City" AJ Price was supposed to be there and would've made a huge difference against George Mason. That teamed was flawed.

In 2009 we finally got AJ Price to the Final Four but Dyson was out. Our guards for that game were AJ , Craig Austrie and a young Kemba. That team was supposed to have Doug Wiggins on it and as I recall he was no " Scrub". He would of made a difference.

We won in 1999 , 2011 and more so in 2014 by having multiple guards. This seems to be our winning formula.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Boone and Armstrong were so awful against George Mason that I think that not only Adrien, but even Nelson should have also gotten more minutes, if for no other reason than to light a fire under Boone and Armstrong. Calhoun was pretty hot at Boone the whole game, but Armstrong played 37 minutes and basically got a pass.

I dont dwell on losses for some reason. You win some you lose some and you just have to move on. That being said i still cant believe how HORRIBLE Josh and Hilt were in that game. I mean they couldnt guard a mop. Its like GM guys would get the ball turn shoot and in every time. I knew that team was not going to win the title that year. they just didnt have that IT factor.

 

[Tenspro2002]

In 2009 we finally got AJ Price to the Final Four but Dyson was out. Our guards for that game were AJ , Craig Austrie and a young Kemba. That team was supposed to have Doug Wiggins on it and as I recall he was no " Scrub". He would of made a difference.

Wiggins was a piece of and wouldn't have made a difference.

What would have made a difference is if Kemba had had an average game, rather than one of the worst performances in a Tournament game in program history (1-5 from the field, 3-9 from the line, 4 turnovers).* If he had been able to take even a little pressure off of AJ, both of them would have had better games and we would have won.

* One of the under-heralded storylines of our 2011 run was the Kemba Redemption Tour, getting back to the Final Four, performing well, and winning.

 

[4UConn]

Wiggins was a piece of and wouldn't have made a difference.

What would have made a difference is if Kemba had had an average game, rather than one of the worst performances in a Tournament game in program history (1-5 from the field, 3-9 from the line, 4 turnovers). If he had been able to take even a little pressure off of AJ, both of them would have had better games and we would have won.

One of the under-heralded storylines of our 2011 run was the Kemba Redemption Tour, getting back to the Final Four, performing well, and winning.

Interesting post...what I remember about that game was our inability to transition on defense. Michigan State hammered us with long passes down the court leading to easy scoring opportunities. For whatever reason, JC did not have any answers. Your point is well taken, had Kemba and company shot better, less transition points.

 

[Deadrody]

I think it was against #1 Kansas when Moore and King were kept out by NCAA. I believe we had a 21 point lead and blew it after half time trying to protect the lead.

Or maybe, the #1 team in the country was just, you know, better than the freshman versions of Rip, Jake, and KFree, especially with King and Moore out of the game.

 

[Gurleyman]

Wiggins was a piece of and wouldn't have made a difference. What would have made a difference is if Kemba had had an average game, rather than one of the worst performances in a Tournament game in program history (1-5 from the field, 3-9 from the line, 4 turnovers). If he had been able to take even a little pressure off of AJ, both of them would have had better games and we would have won. One of the under-heralded storylines of our 2011 run was the Kemba Redemption Tour, getting back to the Final Four, performing well, and winning.

That's backwards. AJ (5-20, 1 assist) was the senior leader - Kemba was a 20 mpg spark off the bench. AJ's job is to step up and take pressure off the younger guys, not the other way around. Kasey Hill stunk against us (2-6, 0 assists, 4 turnovers), but the story of the Gator struggles was Wilbekin. If Hill plays well in two years nobody will be talking about his redemption tour, since the loss wasn't on him - the problem was the veteran guys in front of him.

 

[UConn76]

The way we were playing that tournament (wasn't just one game), I don't think we beat Florida that year.

We had the talent that year..and will always think that the team would have stepped up in the bright lights of the Final Four...

 

[Deadrody]

I also think sitting Caron with 2 fouls was a mistake against Maryland, and it was almost a mistake to sit Emeka with 2 fouls against dook. Caron only ended up with 3 fouls, and Emeka was a smart enough player to know how to keep himself from fouling out..

This is so unbelievably dumb. Emeka was smart enough to know how to keep himself from fouling out, but not smart enough to avoid picking up 2 fouls in the first two minutes of the game.

That is utterly moronic

 

[Deadrody]

I think regular season. if the team is playing like they did with FL and GM, JC sits all the starters and plays the bench. Because it was the tournament and we could not get over the FF hump he backed off his regular tendency.

Right. JC "couldn't get over the FF hump" in 1994. When his team had been to the final eight one time, in their first NCAA appearance. There was no "FF hump" to speak of, at least until after the 1994 loss, but moreso after the loss in the final eight in 1995. The very idea that Calhoun went against his own tendencies is pretty laughable, but to claim he did so because he "couldn't get over the FF hump" in 1994 is just unfathomably ridiculous.

It is amazing the revisionist history flying around here.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn played very well against UCLA, although I thought Ollie was not rotating back fast enough on Bailey. Bailey had something like 20 points that game. Bailey was not nearly quick enough to get by Ollie 1 on 1, but Bailey was releasing on the UConn shot and Ollie was not rotating back fast enough. Knight did not play well against the Yugoslav center that UCLA had, but that was just Knight being Knight. Knight is one of the better offensive centers UConn has had, but he could be really bad defensively at times, particularly against physical big men.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The 2006 and 2009 teams were recruited and built to win it all. Their demise was not Calhoun's coaching. Those teams lost based on their rosters.

In the 2006 the team was 30-4 but only had two ball handlers- Marcus Williams and a freshman Craig Austrie. Rob Garrison was also there as a freshman but I'm not sure he played. As good as Rashad, Rudy and Denham were they were not ball handlers. "Circuit City" AJ Price was supposed to be there and would've made a huge difference against George Mason. That teamed was flawed.

In 2009 we finally got AJ Price to the Final Four but Dyson was out. Our guards for that game were AJ , Craig Austrie and a young Kemba. That team was supposed to have Doug Wiggins on it and as I recall he was no " Scrub". He would of made a difference.

We won in 1999 , 2011 and more so in 2014 by having multiple guards. This seems to be our winning formula.

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

 

[Mots010]

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

I know its George Mason, but after they beat UNC and Mich St, Wich St, then Uconn, at some point you have to just say they were good, or at least very hot. Even in the final 4 they hung with Florida and were competitive. Playing a hot team in front of a home crowd is a recipe for disaster, especially for a Uconn team that was not in top form, and had somewhat of a flawed roster.

 

[Scoe]

I say 06 not playing Ed Nelson enough, I also remember that bs charge called on Nelson near the end of the half that changed the momentum of the game should have been an and one putting us up at least 11 at the half.

Whats the biggest game coaching mistake by Geno, I know what the biggest one from Popovich was it was not having Tim Duncan in the final minute against the Heat last year to grab a rebound. Belichick has had his lately.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

3) Adrien had an amazing game, going 7 for 8 with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Calhoun should have just left him out there.

Jeff played the game of the George Mason bigs better than they did and would have willed a win. Only JC keeping him off the court could have stopped him, and that's what happened. At least that's how it felt to me at the time (and ever since) . . . and so much so that I'm actually commenting in agreement with an OP who way more often than not makes me wonder why he posts silly and/or inflammatory stuff when he's obviously capable of good insights.

Then again, RichZ notes a whole lot of other things that might have changed in subsequent UCONN history, so I can easily enough just accept what's so.

 

[Horatio]

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

I agree about the 2009 team. Although we play for championships and are " bred to cut down nets" ,I think most reasonable fans accept that final four team right after our four championship teams. They deserve it.

 

[nomar]

Sitting Caron with 2 fouls against Maryland. That let MD back in the game and they won the NC.

And sitting Emeka in 2004 probably won us the NC.

JC had that rule, and he stuck with it. It's difficult for me to cherry-pick a game or two where it didn't work out for us, when most of the time it did, and in fact may have directly won us a title.

 

[intlzncster]

And sitting Emeka in 2004 probably won us the NC.

JC had that rule, and he stuck with it. It's difficult for me to cherry-pick a game or two where it didn't work out for us, when most of the time it did, and in fact may have directly won us a title.

It's seems KO has adopted the rule too, is that correct? Can anyone remember him not doing it this year?

 

[Gurleyman]

I don't disagree on the ball handling argument for the 2006 team, but we are talking about George Mason here, not UCLA or Florida. That UConn team was really, really good even without a second ball handler.

I think the 2009 team just ran into a very good Final Four in which its opponent was playing a home game. Unless Calhoun could have gotten the game moved to a different venue, there is not much he could have done.

The 2006 team had a good record obviously, but was pretty much meh late in the season - needed double overtime to beat an NIT-bound Notre Dame at home, blew a 17-point lead at 7-24 South Florida, was tied with a minute to go against a sub-.500 Louisville team at home in regular season finale, lost to a pedestrian (yet plucky) Syracuse team in the first round of the BET, regrouped from that debacle to trail Albany by 12 in the second half, was life and death with an also pedestrian Kentucky team (which scored 83 points), and committed highway robbery to escape the Washington game with the help of a BS double tech that took Brandon Roy off the floor. When we drew George Mason, I thought "thank goodness our bracket blew up, because this team wouldn't beat anyone halfway decent right now". George Mason turned out to be halfway decent enough.

Frankly, Albany got a little hyper in the moment and choked their lead away, or we might have lost a 1-16 game (we couldn't guard them either). No secret that I don't care much for Marcus Williams, but he stepped up in the second half and saved us that embarassment, so I'm grateful to him for that at least.

 

[Gurleyman]

I say 06 not playing Ed Nelson enough, I also remember that bs charge called on Nelson near the end of the half that changed the momentum of the game should have been an and one putting us up at least 11 at the half.

Whats the biggest game coaching mistake by Geno, I know what the biggest one from Popovich was it was not having Tim Duncan in the final minute against the Heat last year to grab a rebound. Belichick has had his lately.

I mentioned this earlier in this thread, but Duncan was never on the floor all season in San Antonio's "no threes" defense late in games. They used Diaw in his place and switched everything, and that prevented Duncan from being stuck in a mismatch on the perimeter against a shooter. The unit that was on the floor was the one that was best-drilled on how to handle that situation - yet it so happens those players still botched it up. The issue was Parker didn't switch on to Bosh like he was supposed to - even a small body would have kept Bosh off the glass, since he had to crash from the three-point line all the way down to the paint to get the ball. He just had nobody in the way, and that made it easy.

If you put Duncan in Diaw's spot and assume the Heat run the same play, he would have been out contesting LeBron's three and wouldn't have been in position for the rebound anyway.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

One of the under-heralded storylines of our 2011 run was the Kemba Redemption Tour, getting back to the Final Four, performing well, and winning.

Under-heralded in the sense that I never once heard any reference whatsoever to it in the media or anywhere else until you just mentioned it. That final four was 5 years ago and, until you posted it in this thread, I've never once heard anyone even hint that Kemba was redeeming himself for 2009 in 2011. It never even occurred to me to blame him for the loss to MSU.

 

[David 76]

Right. JC "couldn't get over the FF hump" in 1994. When his team had been to the final eight one time, in their first NCAA appearance. There was no "FF hump" to speak of, at least until after the 1994 loss, but moreso after the loss in the final eight in 1995. The very idea that Calhoun went against his own tendencies is pretty laughable, but to claim he did so because he "couldn't get over the FF hump" in 1994 is just unfathomably ridiculous.

It is amazing the revisionist history flying around here.

Good point. Too bad you were such a about it.

 

[Husky999]

Can't believe no one here is talking about the biggest underachieving Uconn team of them all 1995-96. Loss to Miss st. in the sweet 16. IIR we were down about 20 points when we decide to start up the press and cut it to 2 before ultimately losing to that chump team. That loss hurt way more than the Florida loss. That Uconn team was way better with or without Ricky Moore. Even though if we had won we would have forfeited the games because of the violations.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Can't believe no one here is talking about the biggest underachieving Uconn team of them all 1995-96. Loss to Miss st. in the sweet 16. IIR we were down about 20 points when we decide to start up the press and cut it to 2 before ultimately losing to that chump team. That loss hurt way more than the Florida loss. That Uconn team was way better with or without Ricky Moore. Even though if we had won we would have forfeited the games because of the violations.

I thought that team overachieved a little. The lineup was Sheffer, Allen, King, Knight and Moore or Rash as the 5th starter. That team basically had no bench, and neither of the front court players were creators even if they got the ball on the blocks. That team was susceptible to a really good defensive squad, and was protected by an OK Big East that year that did not expose the team's holes.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The 2006 team had a good record obviously, but was pretty much meh late in the season - needed double overtime to beat an NIT-bound Notre Dame at home, blew a 17-point lead at 7-24 South Florida, was tied with a minute to go against a sub-.500 Louisville team at home in regular season finale, lost to a pedestrian (yet plucky) Syracuse team in the first round of the BET, regrouped from that debacle to trail Albany by 12 in the second half, was life and death with an also pedestrian Kentucky team (which scored 83 points), and committed highway robbery to escape the Washington game with the help of a BS double tech that took Brandon Roy off the floor. When we drew George Mason, I thought "thank goodness our bracket blew up, because this team wouldn't beat anyone halfway decent right now". George Mason turned out to be halfway decent enough.

Frankly, Albany got a little hyper in the moment and choked their lead away, or we might have lost a 1-16 game (we couldn't guard them either). No secret that I don't care much for Marcus Williams, but he stepped up in the second half and saved us that embarassment, so I'm grateful to him for that at least.

The Big East was very tough that year, and UConn had a great record. The top 6 on that squad were excellent, and the Adrien and Austrie were a good 7 and 8. It took epic no shows by Boone and Armstrong for UConn to lose in overtime.